February 14, 2003—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced January 22 that the agency has begun distributing smallpox vaccine to state and local governments that will coordinate the vaccination of smallpox response teams. The teams are part of the nation’s voluntary vaccination program to protect Americans from the potential threat of a terrorist attack involving an intentional release of the smallpox virus.
As of January 2, CDC had delivered kits with enough vaccine and needles for 21,600 public health and healthcare workers to Connecticut, Nebraska, Vermont, and Los Angeles County. Twenty states (including 1 county) had requested nearly 100,000 doses of vaccine as of January 2.
For more information about smallpox, visit Smallpox.gov or CDC/Smallpox. Spanish-language materials are also available from CDC. CDC has a public information hotline for questions about smallpox and smallpox vaccine at 888/246-2675; Spanish 888/246-2857; TTY 866-874-2646.
